The mom of a suspect who surrendered in the theft of the rare 17-year-old African reptile insisted Wednesday that authorities made a shelluva mistake in arresting her son.

Suspect Shawn Waters “loves animals,” his mother Amy insisted before his Queens Criminal Court arraignment. “That’s his passion. And now they’re trying to create him like he’s some kind of monster on the news? Like, come on.”

“A 100-pound turtle ... If he took it on the bus or something, wouldn’t somebody notice that?” she asked. “That turtle was huge. So that’s another thing that’s odd, because this is a huge a-- turtle from what I saw.”